Chapter 186: Chapter Three

Kyra

If he didn’t want me breaking glasses he needed to leave. I tried not to stare, but he was making it difficult. For one thing, he was completely massive. Then again, so was Tarek.

I frowned.

“What’s his name?” I asked once Tarek came back behind the bar with an easy grin on his face and a wink in my direction. Surrounded by beautiful men, what a hardship.

“Who?” Tarek popped the caps off two Bud Lights and set napkins down for the customers in front of us, the ones who kept staring at me like I was on the menu. Bastards. I glared, then Tarek’s eyes did this creepy thing that almost made me want to look away before both guys got up and left.

“What did you just do?”

“Nothing,” he said quickly. “What were we talking about?”

“The guy that was ready to fire me for breaking glasses.”

And as if I’d conjured him, he walked near the bar and held up two fingers. Tarek nodded and sent two bottles of jack sailing down the table. The guy picked them both up and walked off.

“The owner,” Tarek said. “His name’s Timber, he has a shit ton of money and needs a friend.”

Goosebumps erupted across my skin at the word friend. I didn’t have friends, and what family I did have just moved overseas. In fact, the last thing my mom said to me was that she had a good feeling about this bar. What mom says that? Specifically, about a bar named Soul? I took a deep breath and asked, “Say what?”

Tarek pointed at himself, “I’m the friend. He just doesn’t know it yet. He likes to isolate himself, darkness and all that.” He shot me a wink.

“So you just offered yourself up as his friend and he said ‘sure thing, I’d like one of those!’” I laughed.

“Not exactly,” Tarek joined in with me. “But it’s important. He’s going to need people around him.”

“Going to?”

Tarek swallowed and then shrugged. “Let’s just say I know things.”

“Ohhhhhh,” I tapped my temple with a black fingernail. “So you’re like one of those clairvoyant people?” That at least explained the goosebumps and weird feeling I’d had ever since walking in that place. A bar shouldn’t feel warm and homey—and yet the minute I stepped over the threshold it did.

He flashed me a perfect white smile and leaned in until our mouths almost touched. “Why? Is that the sort of thing that does it for you?”

I shoved him playfully away, the last thing I needed was to get involved with a guy who reminded me of my parents. They thought they were clairvoyant too. “Didn’t you say you had a girlfriend?”

“Yup! I’m safe.” Another flashy grin before he sauntered off toward a table full of college students that looked ready to flash him if he so much as flinched.

I gave my head a shake and wiped off the bar with a wet rag when I smelled it. It was a pine scent that reminded me of frankincense mixed with something heady. My tongue felt thick in my mouth.

“Are you going to rub a hole into my bar too?” came the raspy voice.

Slowly, I turned.

Up, up, up I looked into ocean blue eyes and blond, almost white hair.

A jaw so sharp I almost reached up to touch it, full lips that couldn’t be real, and a body that seemed like it had stepped right off the cover of some magazine.

“Timber.” I said his name out loud, testing it on my tongue. Great, more goosebumps erupted as the heat in my chest seemed to expand out toward my arms until my fingertips tingled.

He went completely rigid, his jaw clenched. “Well? You must need something if you’re saying my name.” He stepped forward, nearly pinning me against the bar. “So? What is it? Kyra?”

I blinked.

Was it my imagination or did he say my name with an accent?

His black pupils bled into the blue of his irises and then I saw a pinpoint of red before he closed his eyes, turned around, and left, slamming the door to the bar behind him.

“What was that about?” Tarek asked making me jump a foot before pressing a hand to my chest. “He looked ready to either kill you or eat you.”

“Hah.” My heart fluttered, and then my entire body went on high alert. He was dangerous.

Very, very dangerous.

And as I looked around the bar at the grinding bodies, at the beautiful people who watched others dance only to beckon them to their laps and toy with them like they were trying to put them under a spell, I had to wonder… why?

Just why?

Something felt… off.

Why had my mom suggested this bar of all places as a break after college?

“Tarek…” I licked my lips. “Why aren’t any of the men dancing?”

He shrugged. “Probably because it’s more fun watching women move their hips. Besides, not many men can dance, and men usually want sex so… clapping and snapping between beats typically means a hard no by any girl watching.”

“You clap when you dance?” I laughed behind my hand.

He bowed. “And my point is made!”

I forgot about Timber the rest of the night.

And when I let myself in my small apartment down the street. The one I could barely afford.

I could have sworn I saw his face when I closed my eyes.

What was more disconcerting…

It felt like he was still watching me.

Even then.

Something was hot against my face.

The darkness wrapped itself around me like a blanket. Thankfully, it didn’t scare me, the darkness. It was just the opposite of light, and that didn’t mean it was bad.

Dark was just the absence of light.

I’d always preferred it. Always. As if it was my savior. Most little girls are afraid of the dark—I embraced it because it provided comfort.

But the light always came.

Sadly, in the morning, things would look the same.

I’d be the same.

I was safe in the shadows and in the light.

I closed my eyes as a heaviness settled on my chest.

And when I blinked them open, there he was, standing there.

I blinked again.

Gone.

I jolted up. “Timber?”

Nothing.

With a shiver, I lay back down and could have sworn I heard someone chuckle in the darkness like this was the best entertainment they’d ever had.

And I was exhibit A.